Dark Stones #1: The Rising Darkness

Chapter 12 - Encounter

The two wolves faced one another, circling slowly. Maggie had her teeth bared, while Libby wrinkled her nose bridge and had her ears laid back.

Kotan, Red Spirit and the other trainees were watching as the two she-wolves prepared to attack.

"Are you going to circle each other all day?" Kotan's remark was a jest, but it was enough to spur Libby into action. She lunged and tried to pin Maggie, but the Hunter-trainee was light on her paws and dodged. She whipped around and knocked Libby off her paws. Libby gasped as the air rushed from her lungs. Before she could take a breath, Maggie's paws were firmly on her chest.

Libby wheezed. "Okay, okay, get off me!"

"Hm." Maggie let out a self-satisfied noise and stepped off the other pup.

Kotan nodded. "Very well done. Libby, you need to work on your speed. You're more strongly built than Maggie, but you can't let that limit you. Maggie, that was an excellent use of your speed and nimbleness."

Maggie trotted back to the other three trainees and sat down beside Alex, who muttered a quick congrats. Meanwhile Libby rose and shook the sand off her fur.

"You okay?" Red Spirit inquired.

Libby nodded with an annoying grunt. "Yeah, yeah." Fight training often resulted with getting bruises and slight scratches, but somehow it was always her that ended up with the most.

"Okay. Next up is Alex versus Maggie."

"Oh, I'm looking forward to this one!" Maggie's voice was eager.

Alex scoffed good-naturedly. "I'm much bigger and stronger than you!"

Libby sat down beside Katie and watched as her brother and the purplish-brown she-wolf started to circle one another.

Alex made the first movie, however Maggie once again managed to dodge it using her speed. She spun around and was about to use the same move that she'd used on Libby.

Watch out!

As Maggie crashed into him, Alex managed to fasten his jaws around her scruff and with a rough movement thrust her into the ground. A cloud of dust rose up around them.

"Woah!" Katie exclaimed.

"That was fantastic!" added Umium.

Though she herself said nothing, Libby was pleased to see her brother was making good progress on his fighting moves. At least one of us is.

"I agree. That was great, Alex. Maggie, you must keep in mind that your light-pawed attacks won't work on everyone, especially larger wolves like Alex. Be quick, cut with your teeth, and evade any retaliation from your opponent. This way you can deal a lot of damage without getting hurt,."

Too bad I'm kind of in between when it comes to size, speed and strength, Libby thought. She didn't exactly show much promise in her fighting yet.

Katie apparently caught her looking somewhat annoyed. "Are you okay, Libby?" she asked in a hushed voice.

Libby flattened her ears. "Er, I'm fine. Just...irked that I can't seem to defeat Maggie or Alex."

"I'm sure you'll do great one day!" Katie assured her. "You show promise, you just haven't honed your skills enough. Remember how I taught you to swim? That took practice, but now you're pretty good! You'll do fine."

Libby once more felt herself grow warm inside. She really believes in me!

Kotan's voice interrupted her. "Okay. Last round. Umium versus Katie. Begin!"